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form kendoka here: I don't want to distrust your instructor, but Kendo IS the way to study all you need to fight. Then there is each school where you can practi

by meerita 10y ago

form kendoka here: I don't want to distrust your instructor, but Kendo IS the way to study all you need to fight. Then there is each school where you can practice special katas and become proficient with one or another technique, but overall.

robaato 10y ago
I study kenjutsu (and aikido) - and have friends/colleagues who are also serious kendo practitioners. Kendo has pluses and minuses - the shinai used can teach habits of "flicking wrists" which just don't work with heavier weapons. And yet advanced practitioners have serious focus and skills. I much admire a female Japanese friend (and sempai) who was told by our sensei to go and study kendo (while not slacking off in her other studies). In her fifties, and a 5th dan, off she went and started from scratch but made rapid progress, and brought back what she had learned. Our sensei told other people to do different things - horses for courses. But what does it mean "to fight"? No rules? For your life? For someone else's life? These are the fundamental questions to be examined and resolved. How would you know if you are ready?
cyberferret 10y ago
There is no doubting that in just my 3 months of study so far that my balance, focus, strength and endurance have improved significantly. All of these factors in themselves will probably make me better prepared to stand up to an attacker in a dark alley than I was before I started the study. However, the finer techniques of grip and striking style - while beneficial for honing and improving all of the above, have little relevance in a street fight situation. But even if my Kendo study gives me the balance and a millisecond better reaction time to be able to pivot out of harms way and dodge a blow, and if it gives me the endurance to run the heck away from a danger scenario, then it is all worthwhile.

by meerita 10y ago

robaato 10y ago

I study kenjutsu (and aikido) - and have friends/colleagues who are also serious kendo practitioners. Kendo has pluses and minuses - the shinai used can teach habits of "flicking wrists" which just don't work with heavier weapons. And yet advanced practitioners have serious focus and skills. I much admire a female Japanese friend (and sempai) who was told by our sensei to go and study kendo (while not slacking off in her other studies). In her fifties, and a 5th dan, off she went and started from scratch but made rapid progress, and brought back what she had learned. Our sensei told other people to do different things - horses for courses. But what does it mean "to fight"? No rules? For your life? For someone else's life? These are the fundamental questions to be examined and resolved. How would you know if you are ready?

cyberferret 10y ago

There is no doubting that in just my 3 months of study so far that my balance, focus, strength and endurance have improved significantly. All of these factors in themselves will probably make me better prepared to stand up to an attacker in a dark alley than I was before I started the study. However, the finer techniques of grip and striking style - while beneficial for honing and improving all of the above, have little relevance in a street fight situation. But even if my Kendo study gives me the balance and a millisecond better reaction time to be able to pivot out of harms way and dodge a blow, and if it gives me the endurance to run the heck away from a danger scenario, then it is all worthwhile.